1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for human resource management, and especially to a system and method for recording attendance information on employees at their places of work.
2. Background of the Invention
The most common conventional system for recording attendance information on employees uses time cards. Each employee has a time card, which he/she inserts into a “clocking-in” apparatus when he/she arrives at work. The apparatus stamps the time of insertion on the card. The card is also inserted when the person leaves work, so that the hours worked by that person can be calculated according to the times stamped on the card. The system may also be expanded to record information about the times of attendance of all the employees. This record may be in the form of a punched tape or a magnetic tape. The time of arrival of each employee, together with information that identifies the employee, is recorded. At a later stage, the tape may be removed from the system equipment and processed through a computer, so that the number of hours worked by each employee may be assessed. This enables the wages of the employees to be determined.
The operation of such equipment is rather inconvenient and time consuming. If information relating to the time worked by each employee is readily ascertainable from the time cards, any person may easily obtain this information and compromise confidentiality. If the information is stored on tape or similar means, the tape can only be processed after its removal from the system equipment and its insertion into a computer. There is a delay between the recording of the information and the processing of the information relating to the employee. Furthermore, it is necessary to not only have a system for recording the times of attendance of the employees, but also a separate system/computer for processing such information. Moreover, in order for each employee to calculate his/her own hours worked in a given period, he/she must manually perform calculations based on the times stamped on his/her card.
At present, the art of computerized recording of attendance information on employees is disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,780 issued on Nov. 30, 1993 and entitled Human Error Preventing System Using Bar Code Reading Collations. This patent discloses a human error preventing system. The system uses a bar code reader to read attendance information, and necessarily requires the user to operate the bar code reader by passing the reader over the bar-coded information. Again, this process is unduly cumbersome and slow, because the user has to hold and operate the reader.